Pregnancy failure is common, occurring in about 12 to 15% of all clinically recognized pregnancies, and up to 22% of all pregnancies in the United States. Common risk factors include chromosomal abnormalities.
Common symptoms of pregnancy failure include vaginal bleeding and intrauterine cramping. However, such symptoms may also occur during normal gestation, especially during the first trimester.
Sonographic findings in early pregnancy may be inconclusive, and differentiating between intrauterine and extra-uterine pregnancies (IUP and EUP, respectively) is challenging.
Moreover, serial beta Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (β-HCG) measurements over time are oftentimes needed in order to differentiate between a normal and a failing pregnancy and therefore, may not be useful for same-day diagnosis.
It would therefore be desirable to have a simple, rapid and accurate method for identification of a a pregnancy failure, that is devoid of at least some of the limitations of the prior art.